Spencer County was created as part of the abortive, short-lived State of Franklin in March 1786.[1] It was created out of parts of Greene and Sullivan counties, and seems to have included at least the present area of Hawkins County. It was probably named after Samuel Spencer, a judge in North Carolina.[2]The Franklin statehood effort collapsed by 1789. This county existed only briefly, its legality is questionable, and little trace remains.

In 1786 the North Carolina legislature reconstituted a parallel-county of Franklin's Spencer County and called it Hawkins County. It was known by both county names while Frankln's statehood efforts lasted.[2] Now the land on which the lost county of Spencer County was located is known as Hawkins County, Tennessee. By the 1790 census of the Southwest Territory (proto-Tennessee) the County of Hawkins also included parts of modern Clayborne, Hancock, Union, Grainger, Hamblen, Anderson, Knox, Jeffeerson, Roane, and Loudon counties.[3]